Busch Gardens is usually my Happy Place - the answer to long afternoons or weekends when Travis is gone. Not so much this time.
We did our usual character-hugging, and ladybug-riding, but I discovered S and O are at a hard gap with their ages and personalities - and I realized this after I brought them to the park by myself. A lot of what Sophia wants to do requires an adult to go with her - but Olivia is too small for it or too scared. Very few things let you ride as a group of three. So there were many tears, many negotiations, and a long time in the Land of the Drachens playground. Add to this, the reality that Hollow Scream is going on and it was not the relaxing morning I imagined. Luckily if you go before sundown zombies don't attack you (how considerate). But I find I can't let the girls ever look up for fear of seeing ghouls dangling from the trees. So we race from country to country with the stroller shades covering them.
We did find some solace in the Wild Animal Refuge and Bird Aviary. We were enjoying looking at the different colored parakeets when a Major Meltdown occurred over who got to hold the bag of Goldfish. And like that. I was done. We fled the Animal Santuary and I hauled that double stroller through Ireland amidst screaming, gave a shout out to the sheep in England as we ran by and got out the front gates just as the screaming subsided. We boarded the parking lot tram in relief - the only ones leaving the park at noon.
I told the Kind Old Man with the Microphone that we were parked in Germany and then settled in for the wind-down that usually is the tram ride. But something went awry. Perhaps KOMwtM did not communicate to Kind Driver Man where I was parked because the events that followed are a bit hazy yet very traumatic. As the tram went flying by Germany, KOMwtM shouts "SHE'S PARKED IN GERMANY JOE!" And the tram comes to a screeching halt. Olivia flies off the seat and somehow I catch her with my feet but Sophia flies off the seat and lands on the floor of the tram. Hard.
All three of us are then officially sobbing. Yes, I am sitting on the Busch Gardens tram outside the Germany parking lot weeping and clutching my children to me. I do not speak. I do not move. I surrender to the moment. And oh those poor, sweet old men in their lederhosen looked completely horrified. But to their credit they do not bother me. They send the other trams around. They knew far better than to speak to an emotional woman whose children have been endangered (even if she has been yelling at said children moments before).
We did find some solace in the Wild Animal Refuge and Bird Aviary. We were enjoying looking at the different colored parakeets when a Major Meltdown occurred over who got to hold the bag of Goldfish. And like that. I was done. We fled the Animal Santuary and I hauled that double stroller through Ireland amidst screaming, gave a shout out to the sheep in England as we ran by and got out the front gates just as the screaming subsided. We boarded the parking lot tram in relief - the only ones leaving the park at noon.
I told the Kind Old Man with the Microphone that we were parked in Germany and then settled in for the wind-down that usually is the tram ride. But something went awry. Perhaps KOMwtM did not communicate to Kind Driver Man where I was parked because the events that followed are a bit hazy yet very traumatic. As the tram went flying by Germany, KOMwtM shouts "SHE'S PARKED IN GERMANY JOE!" And the tram comes to a screeching halt. Olivia flies off the seat and somehow I catch her with my feet but Sophia flies off the seat and lands on the floor of the tram. Hard.
All three of us are then officially sobbing. Yes, I am sitting on the Busch Gardens tram outside the Germany parking lot weeping and clutching my children to me. I do not speak. I do not move. I surrender to the moment. And oh those poor, sweet old men in their lederhosen looked completely horrified. But to their credit they do not bother me. They send the other trams around. They knew far better than to speak to an emotional woman whose children have been endangered (even if she has been yelling at said children moments before).
They just stood there. Finally they offered to take me to First Aid. I declined. I knew we were fine and could not face re-entering the park. In retrospect, had I been thinking clearly, I would have proposed an under the table deal of Lifetime Preferred Parking. But at the time, I just did not want to be there anymore. Finally we hobbled off the tram and headed into the wasteland of the Germany parking lot. Then we all went home and had lollipops.
And somehow managed to make a full recovery. A friend at Emory gave us this wisdom when we were expecting Sophia: He said, "Children are incredibly resilient. They have been surviving for thousands of years all over the world in a host of different conditions." After weeks like this, I remember these words. But then I also remember that he never mentioned the resiliency of parents...
And somehow managed to make a full recovery. A friend at Emory gave us this wisdom when we were expecting Sophia: He said, "Children are incredibly resilient. They have been surviving for thousands of years all over the world in a host of different conditions." After weeks like this, I remember these words. But then I also remember that he never mentioned the resiliency of parents...
1 comment:
That is such a traumatic story!!!!
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